The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook Quotes

“Tea that contains discernible amounts of stems or other bits of foreign matter, broken leaf, or accumulated bits of tea dust is not premium tea and should not be purchased.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Pan Long Yin Hao, a green tea, should show us that it is made from small, delicate leaves plucked very early in the spring from newly emerging leaves.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Green tea is tea in its purest form and the one that is minimally altered by man.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Always cover your tea when steeping; the tea leaves will unfurl more uniformly and the finished tea will taste better if the teapot or gaiwan has been covered.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“When tasting a tea that is new to you, start with a two-minute steep, taste it, and taste it again every thirty seconds. Jot down the results.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“One last caveat: water should be boiled only once. Heating water and regulating the heat to maintain a constant level for a short tea-steeping session is fine; reheating water that has come to a boil and cooled completely will create flat-tasting, lifeless water.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Aged teas are prized for the increased energy (cha-qi) that they possess, and for their ability to connect with and increase the level of internal bodily energy (qi) in those sipping these teas. This marriage of cha-qi and qi generates strong feelings of contentment and peacefulness within the tea drinker and is an anticipated and esteemed trait that is especially powerful and prevalent in aged teas.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Crafting fine tea requires a highly developed sense of perception for touch, sight, and sound that no machine can replicate. And every tea—from Taiwan’s Ali Shan High Mountain gao shan oolong to a brisk and bright Ceylon black tea from the Nuwara Eliya region of Sri Lanka—tells a story in the cup about the soil and air that nurtured it and the tea-making skills that transformed and shaped it.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“With a few exceptions (sheng Pu-erh, Bai Hao Taiwan oolong, and the leafy white teas from Fujian, China), leaf color should not be a mixture of tones, thicknesses, and lengths.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Wu Yi Shan rock oolong tea leaves should be long and leafy, thick and plump, and slightly rumpled or twisted and smoky gray-black in color; they are never small and choppy.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“tea has a dull, lackluster appearance, pass on it.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“All tea is graded by size in the tea factory, and premium tea should be comprised of whole leaf that is clean and consistent in size.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Anhui Province’s delightful Keemun Mao Feng should be a fairly thin leaf and solid black in color,”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas

“Mengding Mountain on the Tibetan Plateau in northwestern Sichuan Province is likely the birthplace of cultivated tea.”
― Mary Lou Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook: A Guide to the World's Best Teas